Inside Out is our road map for guiding teachers, school leaders, and childcare workers in connecting to – and radiating their best selves in their interactions with children, their communities, and in their own lives.

The Inside Out program:

Supports educators in forming learning communities to further their professional development, social awareness, and personal attainment

Guides teachers in recognizing and expressing their authentic identities, voicing their opinions and beliefs, and learning the intricacies of collaboration and teamwork.

Fosters positive interpersonal interactions, a sense of value in diversity and varying perspectives, and productive ways of resolving conflicts and disagreements.

Generates a new wave of educators, versed in innovative, research-based teaching practices, to support their students’ academic, social, and emotional growth

Promotes a culture where learning occurs at every level

Inside Out’s blend of methods push educators to bring their best selves into every interaction with children, equip them with the necessary knowledge of content and instruction to unlock every child’s authentic self, and inspire educators to re-conceptualize the profession of teaching and exemplify the power of a holistic education.

The video below shares a glimpse into our world. Developing a culture of respect, support and compassion requires examining old habits and consciously building new ones that are reflective of the world we want to live in. This begins with our educators and radiates outward.

INSIDE OUT IS A MULTI-FACETED PROGRAM THAT SUPPORTS DIFFERENT CONFIGURATIONS FOR LEARNING, INDIVIDUAL GROWTH, AND DEVELOPING TEAM CULTURE

In order to maximize participants’ wholistic development and strengthen team culture, Inside Out’s robust program balances different learning configurations–from direct instruction to supported group work and autonomous participant inquiry. We also utilize a range of learning modalities, including viewing digital resources, video analysis, role-play, discussions groups, case study review, and personal reflection and expression.

Weekly 4-hour group sessions held at the Muddy Lotus campus for all program participants. In order to train a new kind of educator in Sierra Leone, we provide a weekly professional development and team-building program. This comprehensive program is thematically designed around the concept, Today I’m Brave, and leads educators in unlocking the meaning behind Bravery, practicing its principles in their daily lives while also exploring nuanced ways to incorporate the concepts explored into their regular classroom instruction. This will shape a safe and supportive school and classroom culture, one which fosters our educators’ and children’s inner transformation and invites them to live the Brave life.

Teacher-Driven Inquiry Groups

This September, we are launching new component to Inside Out, called, “The Professional Learning Community.” Educators will meet weekly for autonomous, participant led inquiry groups. These meetings are structured around digital resources–such as TED Talks, and online articles–which are selected by participants, and serve as a springboard for rich discussions, independent and team research, collaborative learning, and the possibility to generate extension activities and community initiatives, all of which are determined and directed by the participants in the group. We are eager to empower our educators to be the agents to create their own professional development, and look forward to seeing the unique directions they choose to take with their learning.

Weekend Warriors and Intersession Intensive Trainings

To supplement weekly sessions and accelerate growth, we hold intensive trainings during weekends, school intersessions, and to kick-start each school term.

Movie Mondays

We can support participants in internalizing new and complex concepts by showing visual models and enactments of the concept being studied. During these bi-weekly movie nights, educators convene to watch and discuss movies from around the world that depict rich emotions and social skills being explored through the Inside Out curriculum.

Leadership Training

A school’s tone is set and sustained by the school’s leaders and administrators. Our leadership trainings and retreats are designed to equip current and aspiring leaders with the skills and emotional attunement to successfully guide their educators, and foster safe, supportive, and inspired school environments and adult team cultures.

Consistent with Shine On’s belief in horizontal and vertical alignment, all program components are both piloted by our US team, and adapted in order for our US team to simultaneously engage in the exercises and rituals being practiced by Inside Out’s participating educators in Sierra Leone.

INSIDE OUT IS A LIVING, EVOLUTIONARY CURRICULUM THAT IS CO-CREATED WITH OUR TEAM IN SIERRA LEONE

The most talented educators have a clear framework for what the curriculum will achieve, however, they continuously adapt classroom instruction to be responsive to students’ interests and learning needs. We embody this same strategy in developing the Inside Out curriculum: we have a clear vision on what the program will achieve, but write session plans and training programs in real time. This allows us to create workshops and weekly sessions that are highly tailored to the group–addressing interests and misconceptions, and teaching new concepts at a relevant pace. Inside Out is a program that we co-create with our team in Sierra Leone. We incorporate the live feedback we receive from our program coordinators and participants as we develop, design, and adapt the program.

The results of this approach are compelling: treating Inside Out as an evolutionary program that is co-created with our participants is:

propelling individual self-actualization

elevating the quality of classroom teaching

building team culture, and

strengthening our participants’ investment in partaking in Inside Out, and driving its expansion to include educators across the country.

The impact of the program has been astounding, and we are eager to continue driving the ripple effect Inside Out is creating! We believe that Inside Out has the powerful potential to be far-reaching, igniting a larger global movement. Join us, and take part in this educational transformation, to Shine light On the authentic joy and potential that is found in teaching, learning, and creating!

INSIDE OUT WILL EXPAND ITS REACH, AFFECTING THE LARGER SIERRA LEONE

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The two words “wholistic” and “holistic” have very different meanings, but there is some confusion and they are often used in an incorrect manner.

The two words have very distinct meanings though somewhat similar in definition. Wholistic refers to the whole, a whole item or whole body of a person or thing. The word defines the consideration of the entire structure or makeup, which includes the body, mind and the spirit in the case of a human being. The word holistic is connected to holism, which focuses on the total entity and the interdependence of the diverse parts of this totality. Holistic has to do with the healing systems that are considered alternative like homeopathy and Ayurveda that deal with the human body as an interconnected whole. Project Lotus focuses on education of the mind, body and spirit of an individual and therefore we use the correct spelling of “wholistic” in referring to our programs.